Shorter Hospital Stays may be Possible With Use of Intravenous Fish Oil

Patients in the ICU who received intravenous fish oil had shorter hospital stays compared to those given standard treatment, a new study has found.

Decreased inflammation and improved gas exchange in the lungs from the omega 3 fatty acids in fish oil allowed the patients to get better faster and go home sooner.

Philip Calder, from the University of Southampton, UK, and colleagues investigated the effects of including fish oil in the normal nutrient solution for patients with sepsis, finding a significant series of benefits.

They conducted the study in 23 patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome or sepsis in the Hospital Padre Américo, Portugal.

The results showed that patients with sepsis given fish oil were discharged from the hospital earlier compared to those receiving traditional nutrition. "Recently there has been increased interest in the fat and oil component of vein-delivered nutrition, with the realization that it not only supplies energy and essential building blocks, but may also provide bioactive fatty acids," Calder said.

"Traditional solutions use soybean oil, which does not contain the omega-3 fatty acids contained in fish oil that act to reduce inflammatory responses. In fact, soybean oil is rich in omega-6 acids that may actually promote inflammation in an excessive or unbalanced supply," he added.

Calder and his colleagues found that the 13 patients in the fish oil group had lower levels of inflammatory agents in their blood, were able to achieve better lung function and left hospital earlier than the 10 patients who received traditional nutrition.

"This is the first study of this particular fish oil solution in septic patients in the ICU. The positive results are important since they indicate that the use of such an emulsion in this group of patients will improve clinical outcomes, in comparison with the standard mix," he said.

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